Tolerance is the foundation of a just society and is a necessary tool to equip students with to function successfully in the world's global community (Vogt, 1997). While tolerance is touted as a goal to teach on educational and government lists, little emphasis is placed on methods of teaching it (Lickona, 1991). In an effort to promote the teaching of tolerance in a middle school setting, this research study explored the implementation of an ethnic cooking club as a means of promoting tolerance in a meaningful manner. Using a qualitative approach, this study included multiple measures of inquiry (questionnaires, drawings, club session observations, participant interviews, and focus groups) as indicators of tolerance teaching and the learning experience.;Thirty-five students in grades six through eight comprised the sample. A total of five, two hour long after school club sessions, comprised of guest cultural presentations along with ethnic cooking demonstrations, constituted the club. The ethnic cuisines and cultures of Mexico, China, the Philippine's, Iran and India were explored. Questionnaires measured participants' pre and post levels of tolerance. Student participant drawings of culture and cuisine were holistically coded to identify perceptions of differences between cultures and cuisines. Club session observations, student interviews, and student and teacher participant focus groups were also utilized to explore experiences as a result of participation in the club.;Findings indicated that students who participated in the study increased in their levels of tolerance as a result of their participation in the ethnic cooking club. Participant drawings indicated stereotypes prevalent in the sample. Interviews, observations, and focus groups provided insight into participants' experiences with the ethnic cooking club.;Results provided new insights into the implementation of an ethnic cooking club on a middle school campus to teach and address tolerance. An ethnic cooking club constitutes a meaningful method of providing cultural and culinary knowledge while increasing students' tolerance for people different from themselves. The study includes implications of findings for education, limitations of the present study, and prospects for future research.
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